49 Leadership Quotes from Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln

Leadership Quotes from Napoleon Bonaparte

“Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”

“The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.”

“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”

“Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.”

“Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.”

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”

“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”

“It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.”

“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”

“It’s the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory.”

“There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind.”

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”

“History is written by the winners.”

“We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”

“In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.”

“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared bayonets..”

“From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.”

“A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”

“If we could read the past histories of all our enemies we would disregard all hostility for them.”

“The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

“Conquests will come and go but Delambre’s work will endure.”

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”

“Imagination governs the world.”

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”

“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.”

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

“The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.”

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

“Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.”

“The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they tradewhat they want most for what they want at the moment.”

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

“The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”

“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”

“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”

“Never tell your enemy he is doing the wrong thing.”

“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”

Leadership Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

“I don’t know but that God has created some one man great enough to comprehend the whole of this stupendous crisis and transaction from beginning to end, and endowed him with sufficient wisdom to manage and direct it. I confess I do not fully understand, and foresee it all. But I am placed here where I am obliged to the best of my poor ability to deal with it.”

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten thousand angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”

“Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground—that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run—is Popular Sovereignty. Have none of it. Stand firm.”

“It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same, between private individuals.”

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.”

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

“I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years’ struggle, the nation’s condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it.”

“While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by [the people’s] will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests.”